Ruocan Zhao, Associate Research Fellow and Ph.D. Supervisor at the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), received his bachelor’s degree in Applied Physics from the USTC Special Class for the Gifted Young. In 2012, he began his integrated master’s and doctoral studies under the supervision of Prof. Xiankang Dou and was awarded a Ph.D. in Space Physics in 2018. During his doctoral studies, from 2016 to 2018, he was funded by the Chinese government to conduct visiting scholar at Stevens Institute of Technology in the United States, where he studied under radiative transfer expert Prof. Knut Stamnes and NASA lidar specialist Dr. Yongxiang Hu, focusing on key technologies and retrieval algorithms for spaceborne lidar systems.

Since returning to USTC in 2018, he has been engaged in cutting-edge research on precision photoelectric remote sensing technologies based on optical frequency combs and single-photon lidar systems. He has served as principal investigator (PI) for both the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) Youth and General Programs, as well as for a major project under the NSFC’s Strategic Priority Research Program on high-precision quantum control and detection.

He is the lead designer of the “Array-Type Large-Aperture Lidar” under the national “Meridian Project Phase II” megascience infrastructure initiative led by the National Development and Reform Commission. In 2023, he successfully developed the world’s first all-season operable metastable helium lidar. He also serves as the deputy chief designer of the single-photon subsystem for the quantum precision measurement facility and is involved in the development of key technologies for the superconducting helium fluorescence resonance lidar.